November 19, 2014 – Professor Ann Carlson is quoted in PolitiFact about a claim by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that China won’t have to do anything for 16 years as part of the recent U.S./China climate agreement.

It will take "significant work" for China to reach the 2030 target, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at UCLA. "You can't stop your emissions immediately. Imagine if China said they would stop emissions today. That would require massive changes to implement -- no increases in driving unless cars were cleaner, no new economic growth without cutting emissions elsewhere, and so on. For China to achieve a cap in emissions by 2030, they will have to begin to find clean energy replacements very soon or seriously limit economic growth."